a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus removably attached to the arm of a seat for the purpose of holding beverages, food, and similar concessions.
b) Background Art
The invention relates to the art of cup holders that generally are attached to seats for the purpose of holding beverages, food, and similar concessions.
Anyone who has gone to a sporting event or to a stadium has noticed that the purchase and consumption of beverages and other articles is necessary given the extended time that is often seen at a sporting event such as football. Oftentimes it becomes necessary to set one item down when both hands are needed or when moving from one place to another. Some stadium seating has been adapted to have built-in beverage containers; however, older stadiums may need to be fitted with such containers to be practical and was not configured originally with such a means for holding beverages and the like, or possibly, during their use, such objects have become nonfunctional or broken. Thus the need for a retrofit of set beverage holders and article holders has been considered and reviewed in several different patents, including Decastro U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,162 and Clark U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,371 Yust U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,962. However, these inventions fall far short of the need either for permanent retrofitting required to install said devices, or in their limited applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,371 (Clarke) shows a retractable and removable concession holder where as shown in the various figures, the seat attachment portion is permanently attached to the underside portion of the stadium seating. As shown, the dove tail-like receiving member is adapted to engage the upper slot portion of the concessions container. This permanent attachment is very costly to implement and precludes the use of other vessel holders.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,303 (Hope) discloses an armrest for a mouse pad where as shown, the straps attach to the armrest by a hook and loop-like fastener such as Velcro™.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,162 (DiCastro) discloses a holder for beverages where the beverage container is slipped over the edge portion of a bleacher seat. As shown in the patent, the beverage container will deform and flatten should a spectator accidentally step or sit on a holder. It should be noted that the drawings, show a wooden plank seat where a saw-tooth surface is adapted to firmly grip the plank. This patent describes an invention which can be attached to the seat of a stadium seating apparatus. This patent is very flimsy and does interfere with seating, and further involves a U-shaped clip adapted to be slipped over the edge of a stadium seat. Furthermore, it is shown to be installed on a bleacher style seat, specifically, the edge of a flat horizontal seating surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,782 (Goldman) discloses another armrest attachment. This patent is adapted to be permanently attached to an armrest with similar disadvantages to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,371 above.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,272 (Thompson et al.) discloses a portable cup holder with a retaining-like second ring. The securing straps are to be Velcro™-type fastening strips. This appears to have a difficult attachment-type set up. This patent relies on the first and second rings to hold the cup securely.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,085 (Mann) discloses a cup holder device where the two securing arms are secured to an armrest by a strap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,000 (Ayotte) discloses a more permanent type of armrest attachment where a removable portion is adapted to be positioned in the main holder. This patent can be positioned in an inverted manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,212 (Dechellis) discloses a beverage container support, where as, the leaf-spring members are adapted to laterally engage the seat portion frictionally engaged thereto. Of course this requires more than one material to compile the unit. At the very least, it requires more than a single unitary structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,262 (Tseng) discloses an armchair mechanism to hold a beverage. Much of the disclosure appears to be related to the supporting plate having a pivot shaft allowing the supporting plate to be positioned in numerous positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,147 (Dutton) discloses a lawn chair cup holder where the strap attaches to the lateral portion of the armrest. This patent is created through the process of plastic injection molding, but is confined to the application of a lawn chair and includes the use a strap connector means, further including a hook portion and a loop portion, a first leg and a second leg.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,962 (Yust) discloses a stadium seat tray. The receiving key section slot is adapted to engage the armrest. The possibilities for adapting this patent to the arms of stadium surfaces are constrained by the configuration of the arms of a seat. Current stadium seating wherein the T-shaped cross-section does not extend all the way to the front of the seat precludes such sliding of a vessel holder across through the front of the arm of such stadium seating. Furthermore, this involves a plurality of vessel holders and this patent requires the beam member be of a length equal to a substantial portion of the length of the horizontal portion of the arm of the stadium seat, as well as width and depth each greater than said seat arm.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,724 (Douglas) discloses an armchair support where the partially cross-sectional view shows how the lug is firmly held within the perforations to adjust the lateral width of the unit.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that the various references above disclose a broad concept of a stadium-like seating device with an armrest cup holder retrofitted thereto.